Bryce Harper is the man you want at the plate (front door) when the game (promposal) is on the line. This week, Harper did a teenage Philadelphia Phillies fan a huge favor and helped him ask a young woman to his prom. Young men know this is never an easy task, but Jake Portella doubled down on his anxiety.
Before he asked Giulia Leonetti to accompany him to the prom, he first asked Phillies superstar Bryce Harper for help. Jake is a student at Haddonfield Memorial High School in southern New Jersey. Harper said yes, went to Giulia’s house, and knocked on the door. Shock doesn’t quite capture her reaction.
Harper Makes Your ‘Promposal’ Stand Out
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Jake faced the same struggle all of us did in the spring of our senior year. How was he going to make his promposal stand out?
“I’ve been brainstorming ideas for prom for a couple weeks and I knew I wanted to do something Phillies-themed because she loves the Phillies so much,”
“I was talking to one of my friends and I was like, ‘There’s some Phillies players who live in town, it’d be cool if I could get one of them to help me with it.”
Jake decided he had nothing to lose, so he walked to Harper’s house and knocked on the front door. This really is hard to believe, but Harper answered the door. Jake asked if the all-star would help him in any small way, maybe recording a video for him. Jake figured he could use the video with the traditional promposal poster.
The Second Knock Went Viral
Harper first said he would take Jake’s email and get back to him. The door closed and Jake started to walk back home, happy he got to talk to the superstar. Then the front door opened again,
“…as I was leaving, he calls me back and he’s like, “What if we just did it right now?”Jake said. “And I was like, “Forget the poster. I don’t think the poster matters if I get Bryce Harper to do it with me.”
The next knock went viral. Harper was standing on the front porch when Giulia opened the door. “I don’t think people understand the gravity of Bryce Harper standing in front of me and what that means to me specifically,” said Leonetti, a Phillies superfan. “I was in tears as soon as I saw Bryce. I just love him so much.”
She went in for a hug, but not to Jake,
“I just said like, “Can I have a hug?” I couldn’t let him (Harper) go. I had to make sure he was real,” said Giulia. “But as soon I snapped back, I was like, ‘I need to hug Jake.”
“Obviously, I said yes. If you’re a Phillies fan, Bryce is automatically your No. 1,” Giulia said. “There’s no way he can’t be.”
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Bradley Tachco is a career journalist. I spent 12+ years at CNN as a writer and producer. My sports are the NHL, MLB, and NFL. My goal: unique content. And my teams are the Buffalo Sabres, Buffalo Bills (yes, I’m a masochist), and the Los Angeles Dodgers. I have been a Dodgers fan since I was old enough to think. I have gone through decades of despair with all three franchises. You can follow Bradley on X @p09691
